Are you an "American" or a "Median"

Dan Henniger of the WSJ, has an excellent piece breaking down General Sanchez's speech from last Friday.

The mainstream media only want to report his comments critical of the Bush administration but he actually blasted lots of folks; including the media.

Excerpt

"It seems that as long as you get a front-page story there is little or no regard for the 'collateral damage' you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct. . . . You assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground."

"The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry." "Tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats." And: "The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war."

I've noticed that many of our modern media elites like to think of themselves as a member of the media first (I'll coin, a Median), American second. But being a media member is no nationality. In fact, what actually makes you a member of the "media"? Surely not education; Peter Jennings was a high school drop out. Maybe experience? Andrea Thompson of NYPD Blue was hired by CNN to anchor a news broadcast (also a college drop out). Maybe it's a professional certification like passing the bar or the CPA exam; except they don't have one.

So the fact is, anyone can call themselves a journalist.

But let's assume you can be a journalist first, American second. Shouldn't the military have the right to shoot a journalist in the field of battle if the journalist interferes with mission success?

The fact is the US Constitution have specifically protected the press from government persecution. But with every freedom comes a responsibility or we risk losing the freedom all together. Maybe the NY Times should think of this before they print their next "America's wrong" piece.